This invention relates to a machine for sewing together fabric pieces.
The known method for sewing together two or more fabric pieces generally comprises the steps of manually engaging the edge portions of fabric pieces, sewing together the fabric pieces and stationary sewing machine while manually pushing the engaged edge portions of fabric pieces toward the stationary sewing machine; or manually holding the engaged portions of fabric pieces in front of sewing machine moving around a work table, thereby sewing together the edge portions. The prior art machines for sewing up, for example, a cushion cover based on the concept of the above-mentioned fabric-sewing method include the U.S. Pat. No. 3,641,954 issued on Feb. 25, 1972 to Kalning et al, the U.S. Pat. No. 3,664,280 issued on May 23, 1972 to Redman et al and the U.S. Pat. No. 4,014,274 issued on Mar. 29. 1977 to Kosakai (Assignee: France Bed Ltd.). With these conventional sewing machines, an operator personally engages the edge portions of fabric pieces and sews up an assembly of fabric pieces on a movable sewing machine while holding the engaged edge portions of the fabric pieces. In this case, it may be contemplated to use marking pins in order to prevent the manually engaged edge portions of fabric pieces from being separated. Obviously, these marking pins have to be manually fixed. Even where the sewing of fabric is undertaken by the known machine provided with a shifting mechanism bearing a saw-toothed slider designed to carry fabric rearward of a sewing machine by contacting the underside of fabric, an operator still has to engage the edge portions of fabric pieces by hand. Therefore, the operator should always attend to a sewing machine, failing to operate a plurality of sewing machines at the same time. The customary sewing method which causes the edge portions of fabric pieces to be manually engaged demands an operator to have an advanced skill, presenting difficulties in providing, for example, a cushion cover of uniform quality and making it practically impossible to automate the operation of the sewing machine and save labor.